Patriots: What should fans make of 49ers’ comments on Jimmy Garoppolo?

Ever since they traded up to the No. 3 overall pick, the San Francisco 49ers have been the most widely discussed teams leading up to the draft. In predictable fashion, the New England Patriots, given their ties to Jimmy Garoppolo, have been sucked into their drama.

The 49ers have seemingly been set on drafting a quarterback for over a month now, and it feels like whomever they select has a good chance of being the starter next season. And we don’t say that because they have a clear picture on who they’re going to take.

We actually say it because of the 49ers’ outlandish comments on Garoppolo during their pre-draft press conference this week. For starters, head coach Kyle Shanahan got extremely morbid (and political) while discussing Garoppolo’s future.

While Shanahan attributed the 49ers’ decision to trade up to Garoppolo’s extensive injury history and said that the team would be “fortunate” to have him mentor whomever they draft, the head coach was hesitant to say Garoppolo and the rookie would be teammates.

Given that the Patriots inquired about trading for Garoppolo at the start of the offseason, what should fans make of these comments?

What should Patriots fans make of the 49ers’ comments on Jimmy Garoppolo?

Let’s put it this way: if Shanahan and John Lynch are seemingly in a hurry to ship Garoppolo out of town to the highest bidder, what does that say about the Patriots’ reported interest in reuniting with him at some point down the road?

While the former second-round pick impressed in his limited opportunities in Foxborough, his stint on the west coast has been incredibly disappointing outside of the 2019 season, which seems more and more like an anomaly than the norm at this stage of his career.

Excluding that campaign, Garoppolo failed to appear in more than six games in his three other seasons, during which he completed 64.7% of his passes for 227.3 yards per game and 19 touchdowns to 13 interceptions, equating to a lousy 57.2 quarterback rating.

As if the press conference couldn’t worsen for Garoppolo, Shanahan proclaimed that he feels comfortable drafting any one of the five prospects that could possibly fall to him … later adding that “we (the 49ers) felt we needed to get a starting quarterback.”

We would absolutely hate to be in Garoppolo’s shoes right now. Seriously, it must be awful to have your head coach lauding your character while simultaneously questioning your status as a starting quarterback and implying that the team would be better suited deploying a rookie under center.

We’d normally refrain from reading into comments like this. However, given the great lengths Shanahan and Lynch went to avoid complimenting Garoppolo’s ability, perhaps the Patriots should be second-guessing their interest in him.

After all, if an offensive guru like Shanahan and the 49ers’ high-powered offense was unable to get the most out of Garoppolo, what should be expected of the Patriots, who don’t have a comparable offensive mind on their staff and have worse offensive weapons?

With the NFL Draft just two days away and the Patriots seemingly poised to trade up and snag one of the top five prospects, this is definitely food for thought for the Foxborough faithful.

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